Friday, September 19, 2008
30000 down. 70000 to go.
Had to get rid of 1000 words because of a scene that just didn't work. Skip is being very helpful in his edits. This wouldn't be possible or worthwhile without him helping to edit on the fly.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
18000 Down, 82000 to go.
Well I've got a good solid beginning. Grenademan isn't in it that much except kind of in the background, but given how I'm using him this story, that's acceptable. I have another 7-8 thousand words of build up before I begin to tear the world apart (which given the mood I'm in at the moment should be delightfully fun) and then the final third which deals with the aftermath.
One challenge at the moment is focusing on the granularity vs montageness. Specifically, the lead time of six months is a bit much to not make an entire first novel about preparations. On the other hand, PREPARING for a zombie apocalypse is not what the story is really about. I'm only really including it because I've never really seen anyone do it before and that's kind of a good portion of what the story is about.
Its hard (in my opinion) to even start to do any meaningful preparation with any less time, but dramatically speaking its ...a lot of time to skip over in 3-4 chapters. Especially given the scope of what is going on. Well, we'll see what happens.
One challenge at the moment is focusing on the granularity vs montageness. Specifically, the lead time of six months is a bit much to not make an entire first novel about preparations. On the other hand, PREPARING for a zombie apocalypse is not what the story is really about. I'm only really including it because I've never really seen anyone do it before and that's kind of a good portion of what the story is about.
Its hard (in my opinion) to even start to do any meaningful preparation with any less time, but dramatically speaking its ...a lot of time to skip over in 3-4 chapters. Especially given the scope of what is going on. Well, we'll see what happens.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Progress Report: On Track So Far
The first chapter is done. It is roughly 3800 words long. Since I’m doing 2000 words a day, I also sent Skip the first 200 words of the second chapter. The first part was largely about the heroes in the world that Grenademan is visiting. The second introduces our demented protagonist. We’ll see how things go. I thought it was funny, but my humor is not always universal.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
I have a basic frame work down
The real problem is...that there have been an awful lot of Zombie parodies lately, and an awful lot of super hero parodies....though I admit I haven't seen a lot of Zombie Superhero Parodies.
Another problem with Frank (Frank Noble) is that, while he is comic and he is in some ways a parody....Grenademan isn't the Tick. He's not Plastic Man either. He's more complex than that. In some ways he's a very simple, elemental character, but his alter ego isn't. In fact, he's the closest to a true author Avatar character I've ever created. He's almost Micky Mouse or Super Man in some ways...he's so 'morally pure' that making a story about him is...difficult.
Some of the ideas I got involve the arc of progression of the character from insane 'parody' to genunine hero.....
But that wouldn't really be humorous. Oh it might, but the scope of the story is such that there can only be so much progress. Not to mention the fact that I really want to respect my own existing continuity, and the only place this story possibly fits is after the non existant sequel to the movie script but before he becomes sane.
That makes him a compotent but utterly insane character who, on the immediate surface anyway, has very little depth. He's more force of nature than character....like Hercules Ra or Quissence Prow in that element, but Prow had some change to him....and where Hercules Ra is an alien perspective, Grenademan is a very understandable, albiet highly warped one.
So to top it all off, the story really can't be about Grenademan, despite the fact that it largely consists of Grenademan fighting zombies. But you can't have 100,000 words of that, as fun as it might be. Stories are about their characters, and good stories are about how those characters change.
Generally speaking, Zombies don't change, and neither (at this phase) does Grenademan. So the story is really largely about all of the people caught in between.
Should be interesting.
Another problem with Frank (Frank Noble) is that, while he is comic and he is in some ways a parody....Grenademan isn't the Tick. He's not Plastic Man either. He's more complex than that. In some ways he's a very simple, elemental character, but his alter ego isn't. In fact, he's the closest to a true author Avatar character I've ever created. He's almost Micky Mouse or Super Man in some ways...he's so 'morally pure' that making a story about him is...difficult.
Some of the ideas I got involve the arc of progression of the character from insane 'parody' to genunine hero.....
But that wouldn't really be humorous. Oh it might, but the scope of the story is such that there can only be so much progress. Not to mention the fact that I really want to respect my own existing continuity, and the only place this story possibly fits is after the non existant sequel to the movie script but before he becomes sane.
That makes him a compotent but utterly insane character who, on the immediate surface anyway, has very little depth. He's more force of nature than character....like Hercules Ra or Quissence Prow in that element, but Prow had some change to him....and where Hercules Ra is an alien perspective, Grenademan is a very understandable, albiet highly warped one.
So to top it all off, the story really can't be about Grenademan, despite the fact that it largely consists of Grenademan fighting zombies. But you can't have 100,000 words of that, as fun as it might be. Stories are about their characters, and good stories are about how those characters change.
Generally speaking, Zombies don't change, and neither (at this phase) does Grenademan. So the story is really largely about all of the people caught in between.
Should be interesting.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
New Plan
So, I'm not entirely sure why I did this, but I've accepted a challenge to write a 100,000 word novel in 50 days called "Grenademan Vs. The Zombies." Its due on October 31, 2008 due or die and Skip has offered to help edit the thing. This pushes Flotsam forward in time to more like March because I'm going to need a break. I won't do any other rpg writing but I'm already committed to work with Ken on the Precyberpunk novel.
So basically we're talking 2000 words a day for 50 days.
This is going to be a challenge, and quite frankly, probably impossible. But we'll give it a try.
Since we have no prep time for plot, other than the weekend I have over dragon con, we'll have to pull from the existing idea and setting pool. Which means using the Grenademan from Tossing Grenades At Windmills (hence the blog name) with the Zombie movie idea I had bouncing around in my head for a while. It will be end of the world and it will be romeroesque, but honestly, my heroes are going to be competent against the undead.
At least as competent as anyone can be.
So basically we're talking 2000 words a day for 50 days.
This is going to be a challenge, and quite frankly, probably impossible. But we'll give it a try.
Since we have no prep time for plot, other than the weekend I have over dragon con, we'll have to pull from the existing idea and setting pool. Which means using the Grenademan from Tossing Grenades At Windmills (hence the blog name) with the Zombie movie idea I had bouncing around in my head for a while. It will be end of the world and it will be romeroesque, but honestly, my heroes are going to be competent against the undead.
At least as competent as anyone can be.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Post Mortem - Le Story
I started reading the third part of a trilogy that shall be unnamed. I normally like this author a lot but I found myself utterly not caring about the characters involved; I liked them for the first two books but 6-7 chapters in, I just...didn't care. I think it was a lot of things...the reality disolving aspect of things....
It is hard to say exactly what it was, but I think it was mainly, I didn't care about the characters or the world anymore. Artificially creating things from nothing is a problem. I learned this in Eye of the Mindstorm.
This story tells me some things. First, Ful needs to suffer more, because as it is he's kind of hollow. Dode has some potential, but she seems kind of flat too.
The REAL problem is...Flotsam (or our hero who shall soon be named) can easily be overshadowed by the other characters. I follow Mr. Card's advice in this in that Flotsam needs to suffer more, which means he needs more to lose. We're going to have to follow Flotsam for a few chapters before Ful and his entourage enter in and turn his life upside down. Flotsom has to suffer more than any other character. Suffering builds empathy with the character, but it can't be pointless suffering.
It is hard to say exactly what it was, but I think it was mainly, I didn't care about the characters or the world anymore. Artificially creating things from nothing is a problem. I learned this in Eye of the Mindstorm.
This story tells me some things. First, Ful needs to suffer more, because as it is he's kind of hollow. Dode has some potential, but she seems kind of flat too.
The REAL problem is...Flotsam (or our hero who shall soon be named) can easily be overshadowed by the other characters. I follow Mr. Card's advice in this in that Flotsam needs to suffer more, which means he needs more to lose. We're going to have to follow Flotsam for a few chapters before Ful and his entourage enter in and turn his life upside down. Flotsom has to suffer more than any other character. Suffering builds empathy with the character, but it can't be pointless suffering.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)